


The Sorcerer's Guide Against Stupidity

by Wrennydennydoo



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-02
Updated: 2019-07-22
Packaged: 2019-12-07 01:12:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,861
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18227912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wrennydennydoo/pseuds/Wrennydennydoo
Summary: In which Morgana isn't evil, Arthur tolerates Merlin far more than he should, and large amounts of time pass without explanation.Or: Merlin isn't all-powerful, but he does his best.





	1. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Merlin likes herbalism, Morgana is outcasted, and a stranger comes to Camelot.

The first thing Merlin learned as Physician’s Apprentice was not to speak unless spoken to first. The nobility around Camelot were fickle and opinionated, and all of them could pull rank against Merlin if he said or did something they didn’t approve of.

The second thing Merlin learned was not to do anything unless Gaius was there. No treatments, no suggestions, no well-intended diagnosis. The third thing Merlin learned was that anything could be poison if you tried hard enough, which explained the second rule.

“I don’t need you to accidentally kill my patients,” Gaius explained. “You’re not to treat anyone without first consulting me. This is a dangerous job, Merlin, and if someone dies that is not supposed to, the King could literally have both of our heads.”

Merlin nodded obediently, taking Gaius’ satchel from him as they walked. The woods were green and alive with spring; while it was damp outside, the temperature was pleasant. A few weeks after the accidental saving of the Prince’s life, Merlin was happier than he’d ever been. Though he’d been loath to admit it, Ealdor had been boring. It was his home, but it was terribly dull. Nothing interesting ever happened there, other than the bandit raids (which were just kinda scary, and a little repetitive.) 

Gaius seemed to take it a personal challenge to keep Merlin busy at all hours of the day, and Merlin spent his nights reading. The Court Librarian had given him access to some of the books in his care, which was more than Merlin had ever imagined. It was a little overwhelming. He learned more in the first two weeks of living with Gaius than he had ever known before. There was so much. Venomous things living in the mountains, poisonous things living everywhere else, areas where only specific plants grew. Merlin loved Camelot. The whole “we burn sorcerers at the stake” thing was a downer, but Merlin was confident he wasn’t ever going to use his gift again, after the first time got him sentenced to being Arthur’s manservant.  

Gaius agreed with him. _Any gift can be rejected, and Magic is no different,_ Gaius had said. It was easy for Merlin to push it back. Some things just weren’t for him, and Magic was one of them.

Merlin had small magics. That’s what his mother had told him, all his life; Gaius had reaffirmed that, with layers of warnings heaped upon him. Camelot was dangerous, even for the powerful; a servant with any Magic would not be stood for. So he was careful. He had no desire to be burned to death, so he kept all of the little power he had buried inside. On the days in which it was uncontrollable and glowed without will, Gaius sent him far into the countryside, or he hid himself deep in the castle with the dragon to wait it out. Merlin was determined to stay alive.

Of course, in the face of someone destroying the prince’s life, Merlin put Gaius’s philosophy on hold. Goddess knew what reason, but each time he excused the risk to save someone that the Goddess knew probably didn’t deserve it-- The dragon, Kilgarrah, was pretty convincing-- but that was an excuse too, wasn’t it. The truth was that Merlin was comfortable, and his workload wasn’t unreasonable, and that he was earning money for his mother and that Arthur really wasn’t so bad after all. A little sensitive about his standing and the King, sure, but (usually) fair-spirited and just.

Merlin was an exception to the last two, but he supposed that not everyone could be nice all the time. Not even Morgana, who Merlin had seen enraged earlier as she swept through the halls. He assumed he’d hear her grudges later, through Arthur.

He had never wished he was wrong as hard as he did then.

“You want to do what.” Arthur said, standing perfectly still with his arms crossed. Merlin, tending to the fire behind him, flinched. This wasn’t going anywhere good.

“I want to free the druid child that your father is going to kill,” Morgana replied, just as steely. “And I want you to help me. You know it’s wrong-”

“That isn’t the point!” He said, beginning to pace. “If the King finds out that his authority has been undermined, he will remove my authority to protect as many people as I can. At worst, he’ll have me banished. He would have you _killed_ , Morgana. There is no safety for us if we get caught.”

Merlin recalled, with some small measure of guilt, what had happened earlier. The druid boy, whom had told him that his name was Mordred and that he was twelve years old, entered the citadel earlier and, in self defense, calmed a pair of startled horses using Magic before they trampled him. Merlin had seen the whole thing, and directed the child to a linen closet to hide in while he threw off the guards. Until this moment, he was under the impression that the boy had left Camelot.

Morgana shrugged in an attempt at apathy. “I would rather die than let a child suffer for something he has no blame for. If you will not help me, my chances will be much lower, and you will live with the guilt of two deaths. Do what you will.”

She swept out of the room, leaving an upset Arthur in her wake. He was still pacing. Merlin’s jobs were done for the early evening, leaving him adrift in the room. He wondered if it would be overstepping his bounds to seek to help the Lady Morgana himself, not through Arthur like she expected.

“Do you have need of me, Sire?” Merlin asked, expecting to be dismissed. Arthur shook his head.

“What was she thinking, telling me about this?” He groused. “I’m bound by my word to enforce my father’s policies. She can’t honestly expect me to do nothing.”

Merlin looked at Arthur, who paused for a second as if waiting for Merlin’s opinion. Merlin decided to oblige him. “She knows you cannot do nothing, Sire,” he replied, trying to break the tension. “You’re too thick-headed for that.”

“I’ll have you know I can have you exiled for saying that,” Arthur scowled. He was joking, though. That was the thing about Arthur. There were many abuses of power that better men had done in the same position, and Arthur, while he had to follow the King’s orders, had done his best to atone for his actions and work around those orders. Regardless of what advice Merlin gave, this would be no different.

“Exactly, Sire. You could exile me,” Merlin said, the _but you won’t_ hanging in the air between them. The Prince sighed.

“It seems I will require you tonight, Merlin,” Arthur said, “And I require your word that you won’t tell anyone what transpires.”

The druid boy, with the help of the Lady Morgana, Merlin, and Arthur, made it out of Camelot unscathed. The Lady Morgana did not.

It was nighttime, and the guards saw a woman fleeing with the druid boy on stolen horseback. They did not find her, but it took a short time before Morgana was discovered missing. King Uther had little hesitation in declaring her a witch who had been disrupting the Kingdom and who had betrayed the King’s kindness.

Three long years later, the former King Uther was all but dead, and Arthur was regent. Mordred was a knight, along with the others that owed Arthur (and Merlin) loyalty.  The Lady Morgana had Magic, living in a banishment Arthur was unable to undo until the death of his father. And Arthur was, somehow and despite the dragon’s warnings, still alive.

And that is where our story truly begins.

Merlin and his small magics were paranoid. He didn’t know what they were reacting to, but it felt like there was a threat, anywhere, in Camelot, something coming towards him. Kilgarrah wasn’t any help, laughing like he always did.

“Young one, I don’t give out wisdom for free. If you wished for my true warnings, you would set me free,” the Dragon rumbled, wings spread imposingly. Merlin had heard all of these things before, and had yet to get anything other than a riddle out of Kilgarrah. He doubted that that was even the Dragon’s real name.

The anxiety did not recede. It only grew in size, causing Merlin to fumble heating Arthur’s bath water and forget things like washing his laundry. (Arthur was “King Regent”, and insisted upon being called such. Merlin expected this to last no more than a month, and refused to use the official title while in private.)

His fear was proved substantial when a druid was taken to court by a group of patrolling knights. Merlin stood behind the King Regent as the woman was forced to her knees, eyes burning a fierce and threatening gold. Merlin felt her own fear deep in his bones, and reached to whisper in her mind, just like he had done for Mordred three years earlier.

_He will not choose to harm you unless you have willingly harmed others,_ he murmured, and her head thrashed in surprise before she replied, unable to pinpoint his identity in the crowd.

_You are bold to say so, hidden one. Were you in my place, you would be ready for the worst._

Merlin tilted his head as Sir Percival bowed and began addressing the King Regent.

“We found her waiting for our patrol in the woods, Sire. She said she wished to address the King Pendragon and his advisor, and that she bears a warning. Then she used Magic to start a bonfire.”

Getting caught for openly using Magic was not common in or around Camelot. Usually, people were persecuted on little viable evidence, a practice Arthur had been putting a stop to. But this case was harder to dismiss.

Arthur rested his chin on a gloved hand, the picture of calm. “Did she injure any of the knights? Have there been reports of property damage or malicious intent in that area recently?”

Percival shook his head. “None, Sire. She is guilty of nothing except the use of Magic.”

“Then she will be punished for only that.” And then, addressing the woman directly, said, “No harm will come to you by the hands of my guards or knights. You will be watched in Camelot’s dungeon for a fortnight. If you do no harm and do not use Magic during that duration, you will be allowed to go free.”

Sir Percival and the other knights saluted, before dragging the druid onto her feet and turning her out of the hall. She began to shout. “Arthur Pendragon, I bear a warning from the Disir, be She blesséd and whole in Her eternity--”

She was cut off as the doors closed behind her. Merlin shivered.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is going to be a long(?) fic with irregular updates, because I'm both busy and lazy lol


	2. Chapter 2

**This is a filler chapter! For the record, I've written over 20,000 words for this fic and I WILL post the next chapter at some point. I just gotta fill in continuity errors that I caused by forgetting some of the stuff I wrote :/**


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